A community based information and education resource about breast health, breast cancer risk factors, diagnosis and treatment. About Breast Cancer provides scientific articles, recent news, a 24/7 chat room, drug and payment info, and links to more than 600 sites sorted by subject.

Provides information on all forms of cancer and offers numerous brochures and publications for patients and healthcare professionals. Their breast cancer page helps users to answer critical questions about breast cancer.

The patient information website of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) provides oncologist-approved information on more than 50 types of cancer and their treatments, clinical trials, coping and side effects.

Organization identifies and advocates for elimination of the environmental and other preventable causes of breast cancer.

The Feminist Majority Foundation's site on breast cancer contains critical information that separates myth from reality, links to breast cancer hotlines, an extensive list of internet resources, suggestions on actions you can take to support breast cancer research, and information on clinical trials of possible treatments. Other features include Breast Cancer News and Mammography 101.

Includes over 2,000 pages of understandable information on all areas of breast cancer. All content on the site is reviewed by members of breastcancer.org's Professional Advisory Board, which is made up of over 50 doctors, nurses, researchers, and other experts from a range of disciplines.

Includes a variety of information on breast cancer as well as links to services from CancerCare, a national nonprofit agency.

Cosmetic Executive Women's mission serves women, their employers, coworkers and caregivers and offers a variety of articles, news, charts, checklists, tips and a community of experts, patients, and survivors to help women continue to work through treatment. The site includes helpful information regarding how to deal with stress, traveling with cancer, and a "What to Do" area for employers when an employee is diagnosed with cancer.

Includes educational newsletters, transcripts of programs, a survivors helpline and information about special events.

A leading resource for information and education about breast cancer, and an advocate for the needs and concerns of breast cancer patients and survivors, NABCO's site includes links, a newsletter, fact sheets, info for caregivers and more.

The largest breast cancer advocacy group in the U.S., NBCC and its sister organization, the National Breast Cancer Coalition Fund, work to educate and train individuals to be effective activists and to influence the public policies that affect breast cancer research and treatment.

This U.S. government site provides information on breast cancer treatment, screening, prevention, genetics, clinical trials and supportive care.

The Breast Cancer Network is a non-profit clearinghouse for information on the detection and treatment of breast cancer. It contains the latest news including a searchable database and articles on breast cancer, as well as hundreds of links to other breast cancer related sites and resources on the Internet. Other features include support information and treatment centers categorized by state.

International network of survivors and supporters dedicated to issues unique to young women and breast cancer. YSC seeks to educate the medical, research, breast cancer and legislative communities to address breast cancer in women 40 and under.

Episode number:

107

Topics:

Over 200,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year; 40,000 of them do not survive. In fact, breast cancer is second only to lung cancer as the leading cause of cancer death among women in the United States.

Breast cancer detection and treatment is not the clear-cut, black-and-white process many of us might expect. In this episode, our panelists talk about the grey areas that every woman should know about. They address these questions and more:

If I do everything right, can I prevent breast cancer?

If I have a negative mammogram, am I safe?

If I get breast cancer, how can I be sure I'm getting the right treatment?

The risk of getting breast cancer increases dramatically with age. So, if you or someone you care about is approaching 40, you'll want to watch this episode.

Quick Facts

With the exception of skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common form of cancer affecting women in the United States. More than 212,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year.

Breast cancer risk becomes greater as women age.

Between the ages of:

Your risk of developing breast cancer is:

30 to 40

1 in 250

40 to 50

1 in 67

50 to 60

1 in 35

60 to 70

1 in 28

Your cumulative lifetime risk - your chance of getting breast cancer from age 0 to the day you die - is 1 in 8 (13%)

Mammograms used in combination with clinical breast exams by a physician are the most effective method of detecting breast cancer. Women over the age of 40 should have a yearly mammogram.

Only 1 or 2 mammograms out of every 1,000 lead to a diagnosis of cancer. Approximately 10% of women will require additional mammograms. Do not be alarmed if this happens to you. Only 8% to 10% of those women will need a biopsy, and 80% of those biopsies will not be cancer.

When detected early, cure rates for breast cancer are 90% and up.

Breast cancer affects more than 1,450 men in the U.S. each year. Experts do not recommend routine screening for men.

Ask Your Doctor

This list of questions is a good starting point for discussion with your doctor; however, it is not a comprehensive list.

General questions about breast health and breast cancer detection

Can you or someone in your office work with me to make sure I'm doing my breast self exams correctly?

Are there changes in my breasts I should expect when I'm close to my menstrual period?

What does it mean if I have breast pain?

What does it mean if I have nipple discharge or inflammation?

If I feel something during my self-exam, have breast pain or nipple discharge/inflammation, should I see you immediately or should I wait for a time to see if it resolves? If so, how long?

Are any medications I am taking likely to cause breast problems?

What are the pros and cons of having a mammogram at my age?

What is your recommendation on mammograms?

If you believe you're at high risk to get breast cancer

Is there anything in my background that indicates

I should have mammograms more often than your usual recommendations?

I should see a specialist?

Where should I have my mammogram?

What do you recommend to women to prevent breast cancer?

If you have found a lump in your breast

What tests should I have?

How likely is it that the lump is cancerous

If a biopsy is recommended

What type of biopsy are you recommending and why?

What is involved in the type of biopsy you are recommending?

If you have been diagnosed with cancer

What is the stage of my cancer?

Has my cancer spread to lymph nodes or internal organs?

What are the results of my estrogen and progesterone tests?

What were the results of other tests (flow cytometry and other markers for tumor aggressiveness)?

What treatments are appropriate for me? What do you recommend? Why?

How often will I receive treatment?

How long will the treatment last?

How well has this option worked for others?

What are the potential benefits of this treatment?

What are the risks or side effects that I should expect?

If I experience side effects, how long will they last and how can they be managed?

Are the possible side effects of this treatment serious enough to interfere with continuing therapy?

How effective will breast reconstruction surgery be in my case if I need it or want it?

What should I do to get ready for treatment?

Should I follow a special diet?

Will I be able to have children after my treatment?

Will I go through menopause as a result of the treatment?

What are the chances of recurrence of my cancer with the treatment programs we have outlined?

What is my prognosis?

Key Point 1

Evaluation of a suspicious breast should proceed until both the doctor and the patient are convinced there is a reasonable chance no cancer exists.

Early detection of breast cancer involves a progression of steps. A combination of breast self-exam, clinical breast exams and mammography is the first line of defense.

Mammography, which shows the internal structure of the breast, can screen for signs of a problem well before anything can be felt or symptoms expressed. By definition, breast cancers found before they are symptomatic are more likely to be smaller and, in the case of the less aggressive forms, still confined to the breast.

Unfortunately, no technology is perfect and mammograms miss up to 20% of the breast cancers that are present at the time of screening. These false-negatives occur more often in younger women than in older women because the breast tissue of younger women is denser . Other causes for false-negative results include:

A tumor's location (it may be in an area that is not easily imaged);

The presence of shadows that can obscure a mass;

The size of the tumor;

The tumor's rate of growth;

The level of hormones, such as estrogen and progesterone, in a woman's body;

The experience and skill of the radiologist.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is the false positive. If a woman gets 10 or more mammograms, there's about a 50/50 chance that one of them will result in a false positive.

Bottom line - mammography is not perfect. But, most doctors feel (and our panel of experts agree) that it is improving, and it does make a difference. Many mammography providers have started to provide double reads - meaning mammograms are read by two radiologists. When they do, false negative and false positive rates drop considerably. Finally, while there has been controversy about mammography in the medical community and in the press over the years, the American Cancer Society continues to recommend that women get routine mammograms starting at age 40.

What if you get a clean mammogram but develop a suspicious symptom like a breast lump, skin change or unusual nipple discharge? In short, don't delay. Talk to your doctor about further evaluation. There are a number of other diagnostic procedures that can be done to put your mind at rest or to confirm that you need to begin treatment. They include:

Diagnostic mammography

Ultrasonography

Breast Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

Ductography

Ductal lavage

Biopsy

How far do you go? Our panelist, Gretchen Ahrendt, M.D., puts it this way. "You should advocate for yourself." She adds, "Doctors go by the rule of threes. The physical exam, breast imaging and pathology all have to agree."

The ultimate answer is a triad:

Try not to be more apprehensive than you need to be. After all, statistics are on your side, and not all lumps or changes in breast tissue mean you have breast cancer.

Recognize the inherent shortcomings of today's breast cancer detection procedures, and do not be complacent if your mammogram fails to find a problem. In other words, keep doing your breast self-exams and going to your doctor for a regular clinical breast exam. If you do find a problem, pursue it until you get a definitive answer, even if it means a biopsy.

Support research efforts to develop better tests to detect breast cancer at its earliest stages.

Key Point 2

The powerful prognostic factors that influence the treatment of breast cancer are the size of the tumor, whether it is invasive or not, if it's metastatic at the time of diagnosis, if it's hormonally sensitive and if there is a family history of breast cancer. Regardless of the treatment options, the patient's choice is ultimately a personal one.

Fact: Breast cancer should more accurately be called breast cancers. The disease is not a singular one, but several, and each type is unique. You can think of them in two main categories - invasive breast cancer and in situ breast cancer . The invasive cancers can be further broken down into another two categories - those that spread very early in their development and those that spread more slowly as they grow

Fact: Tumor tissue can be estrogen-receptor or progesterone-receptor positive or negative. A positive result means the cancer uses hormones to stimulate growth and it can be treated by blocking the circulation of that hormone in the body.

Fact: A family history of breast cancer can affect the timing of treatment, treatment response and outcome. A very high-risk woman may start treatment before cancer shows up with a chemoprevention drug or even with prophylactic (preventive) mastectomy. And, while studies have shown that the combination of lumpectomy and radiation is equivalent to mastectomy for most women, it is uncertain if women with strong family histories are good candidates for this breast-conserving therapy.

Fact: Every woman will react to treatment differently, both physically and emotionally

Fact (and theory): In many cases, there is no way to predict with absolute certainty whether a cancer has spread. (In the past, breast cancer was thought to grow in an orderly progression from a tiny tumor in the breast tissue to a larger one, sequentially traveling out to the nearby lymph nodes , then distant ones, and finally to other parts of the body. Now, however, it is thought that cancer cells are capable of traveling from the breast through the blood and lymphatic system very early in the course of the disease.)

There is no one treatment plan that is right for every woman. It all boils down to probabilities and weighing risks versus benefits. Breast cancer treatment has to be tailored to each individual woman based on a treatment's probability of success as well as on her preferences. Each woman will have a unique treatment goal that can vary from treating a cancer as aggressively as possible to choosing not to receive treatment at all.

Fortunately, new treatment methods and options are continually presenting better odds with fewer side effects. And, doctors and researchers are developing more tools that can help women with their decision-making process. Until we reach an ideal world, though, be prepared to hear "We don't know ." Doctors will tell you there are just too many variables so you do the best you can by calculating odds and doing what our panelists recommend -- deciding what degree of uncertainty you can live with and then moving forward.

Key Point 3

There are risk factors for breast cancer. The ones you cannot control are getting your period early in life, your age, and a family history of breast cancer. The risk factors you can control are hormone replacement therapy, not smoking and not using alcohol excessively.

Left out of the statement above is the most obvious of risk factors -- gender. Men do get breast cancer, but the likelihood of women getting breast cancer compared to men is 100 to 1. That said, no one knows the exact causes of breast cancer and doctors cannot really explain why one woman gets breast cancer and another does not.

Risk factors you can't control

Getting your period early in life is one of the big three uncontrollable risk factors and it all boils down to estrogen. The longer a woman is exposed to estrogen (whether it is made by the body, taken as a drug or delivered by a patch), the more likely she is to develop breast cancer. Women who began menstruation at an early age (before age 12), went through menopause late (after age 55), never had children or who took hormone replacement therapy for an extended period of time are at an increased risk for developing breast cancer.

Age is by far the greatest risk factor. Breast cancer is extremely rare under the age of 30, and is unusual up to 40. The risk of getting breast cancer goes up to about 18% among women in their 40's, while about 77% of women with breast cancer are older than 50 when they are diagnosed.

A family history of breast cancer is a predictor for about 5% to 10% of breast cancers. Having one first-degree relative (mother, sister, or daughter) with breast cancer approximately doubles a woman's risk, and having two first-degree relatives increases her risk five-fold. Risk is also higher among women whose close blood relatives have this disease. Blood relatives can be from either the mother's or father's side of the family. The National Cancer Institute states that risk is higher if the relative(s) developed breast cancer in both breasts, or developed breast cancer before menopause. Also, a family history of ovarian cancer, increases the risk of breast cancer.

Risk factors you can control

Hormone replacement therapy was once thought to improve a woman's odds of not getting breast cancer. However, in 1999, a study in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) linked hormone replacement therapy (HRT) after menopause to increased risk of uncommon forms of breast cancer that have good prognoses. HRT was not associated with the more common types of breast cancer, invasive lobular or ductal breast cancer and ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS).

There is currently research being done to determine the link between cigarette smoking and breast cancer, and we do know that smoking affects overall health and increases the risk for many other cancers, as well as heart disease.

Use of alcohol is clearly linked to increased risk of developing breast cancer. Women who have 2 to 5 drinks daily, have about 1.5 times the risk of women who drink no alcohol. Alcohol is also known to increase the risk of developing cancers of the mouth, throat, and esophagus.

Remember that all risk factors are based on probabilities, and even someone without any risk factors can still get breast cancer. Proper screening and early detection are the best weapons in reducing the mortality associated with this disease.

Medline Plus

Medline Description:

Conduct an off-site search for Breast Cancer information from MedlinePlus. These up-to-date search results are based on search terms specific to Second Opinion Key Points.

Have a comment?

If you'd like to send a comment to the producers of the show, please use our contact form, or feel free to post a comment on the wall of our Facebook Page.

Funded By:

Produced By:

Distributed by:

The material on this Web site is provided for general information only and is not intended to contain or convey medical advice or instruction. Always consult with your physician or other appropriate health care professionals before making any changes in diet, physical activity and/or drug therapy. If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor or 911 immediately. Do not use this Web site for medical emergencies. WXXI did not create and does not recommend or endorse any specific opinions or other information that may be mentioned or referenced on this Web site. While WXXI strives to provide users with the highest-quality related resources on all of its sites, we cannot and do not ensure the quality or accuracy of the non-pbs.org content to which we link.
RELIANCE ON ANY INFORMATION ON THIS WEB SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK.